Ellen Dorsey

Ellen Dorsey assumed the role of executive director of the Wallace Global Fund on March 1st, 2008.

"Dorsey comes to the Fund from The Heinz Endowments in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she has been serving as senior program officer for the Environment Program...

"Dorsey is the current chair of the board of Amnesty International USA. She previously directed Amnesty's national field program and its human rights and environment program. She has a doctorate in political science from the University of Pittsburgh, was selected as a Fulbright Research Fellow in South Africa, and has been a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham College, American University and Georgia State University. She has lectured and written extensively on women's environmental health, human rights and African politics. She is co-author, with Paul J. Nelson, of New Rights Advocacy: Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights NGOs, forthcoming in February from Georgetown University Press.

"Dorsey succeeds Melissa Shackleton Dann, who served the Fund as executive director and, prior to that, as senior program officer for 12 years."

"With a doctorate in political science, Dorsey has worked at the nexus of advocacy and academic research to advance the work of NGOs in the human rights, environmental, and development fields. "She is the former Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Institute and Associate Professor of Political Science at Chatham College. Before coming to Chatham, Dorsey served as the director of the Just Earth! Program on human rights and the environment at Amnesty International USA, developing campaign actions on the global link between human rights and environmental issues. Prior to the Just Earth position, Dorsey served as National Field Director for Amnesty International. "Dorsey has worked in the Africa region, specifically on African environmental and human rights policy issues. She was a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa in 1992-1993, at the University of the Witwatersrand, conducting research on women and human rights in a post-Apartheid South Africa. "She is currently an adjunct professor of International Politics in the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University. She has published numerous articles and monographs on rights-based approaches to development, women’s environmental health and human rights, human rights policy and practice, and Africa. With Paul Nelson, Dorsey has a new book examining global advocacy on economic and social rights, entitled The New Rights Advocacy: Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights NGOs, Georgetown University Press, February 2008."


 * Director, US Human Rights Network